Transient Response of a Cross-Flow Charge Air Intercooler and Its Influence on Engine Operation

To examine the influence of intercooler thermal inertia on transient engine operation, a 2D model of an air-to-air, cross-flow heat exchanger has been developed. Finned passages of heat exchanger core have been subdivided into separate channels of charge and cooling air, respectively. A two-step Lax-Wendroff differential method has been used to solve one-dimensional, nonhomentropic, unsteady, compressible fluid flow in each channel. Simultaneously, the Saul’yev explicit method has been applied to compute the 2D temperature distribution along the dividing plate. The Wieting correlation has been used to compute the local convection heat transfer coefficient and friction factor. The model has been verified against steady-state experimental data and then incorporated into an engine cycle simulation program based on “Filling-Emptying” method. Two engine transients have been simulated; the acceleration of the engine from idle to rated engine speed at constant load, and deceleration from rated power to rated torque by increasing the load torque. The first example shows the warming up of the intercooler, while in the second example intercooler temperatures are decreasing. The results have been compared with the predictions of an additional set of simulations, where the NTU-effectiveness method has been used to simulate the intercooler, and the thermal inertia of intercooler has been neglected. The results of both sets of simulations are discussed in the paper. [S0022-0434(00)02003-7]